The 2000s Track From Bob Dylan That “Knocked Out” Don Henley

There’s not much more praise anyone can give Bob Dylan. It’s nearly cliché at this point to gush over the legendary songwriter. But that doesn’t stop any of us from doing it. His peers lay it on thick as well and have done so for decades. Don Henley is one artist who routinely celebrates Dylan in all of his many iterations.

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For all his legendary music, Dylan has taken some missteps. There are several eras of his career that fans and musicians alike could give him flak for. But Henley has extended his praise beyond Dylan’s universally agreed-upon 60s and 70s heyday. There was one 2000s Dylan track that the Eagles member was “knocked out” by.

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“Really Knocked Me Out”

The 80s saw Dylan enter his “born again” era, and the 90s saw him regain the good graces of his audience. So the 2000s were really his reckoning. He was back on top after some middling years and ready to prove his longevity. Henley took stock of this. In celebration of Dylan’s birthday in the early 00s, Henley talked about a recent release that really stuck with him.

“Bob Dylan is the quintessential enigmatic character — he’s been able to maintain a certain mystery that he cultivated from the very beginning,” Henley once said. “I think there’s both more and less to him than meets the eye…One of the pioneers of thoughtful lyrics that are about something besides boys and girls. And even when they were about boys and girls, they weren’t about boys and girls in a normal way.”

Henley could’ve shouted out any one of Dylan’s greatest hits, but he chose to pick a contemporary effort, which is evidence of Dylan’s unwavering talent.

“That most recent song he did — ‘Things Have Changed’ — really knocked me out,” he continued. “I was driving around one day, and I’d never heard it before, and I thought to myself, ‘Wow, somebody is really doin’ a good Bob Dylan.’ I was saying, ‘This is better than Bob,’ and it turned out to be him. He’s a cyclical person, as all great artists are — he sort of comes and goes.”

That is one of the great things about Dylan. Just when you’re about to count him out, he wows you with something fresh and strong. No matter how far we move away from the politically charged younger years of Dylan, his efforts remain potent.

(Photo by Bernd Muller/Redferns)